Joni Sledge

We’d had a couple of hits in 1974, 1975, we’d been to Germany and made an album with the disco act Silver Convention, but by the time we met Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards of Chic, the four of us had been in the music business for eight years and we were frustrated. We were saying: “Well, maybe we should go to college and just become lawyers or something other than music, because it really is tough.” My sister Kim actually started law school.

We’d been working in Atlantic City, four in the afternoon to four in the morning, six sets, opening for everybody that came through – the Emotions, Bill Withers, the Pointer Sisters – and they were all really encouraging: “You girls are really good, you should stick with it.” That kind of solidified our desire to continue, but our record company, Atlantic, didn’t quite know what to do with us. One time, the president came to us with this brilliant idea: he was going to make paper dolls. He cut them out in front of us. We were all looking at each other, like … nah. So our expectations when we met Chic were not, “Wow, we’re going to work with them and become big stars”; it was more, “We’ll see what happens.” We’d heard the album they’d produced for Norma Jean and thought it was nice, so we figured making our own album would be interesting.

It was fun, but challenging. Bernard and my sister Debbie were both musical geniuses when it comes to harmony, chording, things like that, and in the studio, they were like, “Grrr!” Nile was the mediator. One day in the studio they both walked out, and Nile was like, “All right, OK, everybody take a break. I’m going to talk to Debbie.” They would bicker and he was the vicar!

Recording the track We Are Family was like a one-take party – we were just dancing and playing around and hanging out in the studio when we did it – but Lost in Music was totally different. It was like being in a trance. Even when we play it today, it’s different every time we do it. We have brilliant musicians, and we just say, “Take us somewhere. Go deep,” and we let the audience know, “You know what? Come along if you want to, but they’re really going to take us somewhere!” And they do.

Debbie Sledge

Chic had some awesome tracks in mind for us, but they were developing the songs as they went, and actually writing lyrics in the studio. They said they had a concept, but they didn’t necessarily tell us what the concept was, which was kind of frustrating. We were used to coming in to the studio prepared. Our grandmother had trained us and she was a classical artist, an opera singer, so we were very disciplined. And the way Chic worked was the opposite.

They wouldn’t show us what they were doing because they said they wanted spontaneity. Everything with them was: “We want the spontaneity.”

“But we want to learn the part.”

“But we want the spontaneity.”

“But we want to know what we’re singing.”

And then they’d sing the melody and they weren’t really people who could sing, so it was fun, but frustrating.

When they brought us Lost in Music, I in my ignorance even said to Nile: “Well, I think it’s too repetitive.” He just looked at Bernard. But Joni sang that song and the lyrics were so reflective of her personality. She’s like that to this day: it’s all of our passion, but she’s really focused, she’s all up in that music.

The words are about determination, not giving up, so they kind of fitted where we were at the time. if you have something that you really, really desire, and you’re good at it, even if you’re raw, it’s a good thing to do. And don’t let anybody deter you from it.